Are seaward pneumatophore fringes transitional between mangrove and lower-shore system compartments?

Work in temperate New Zealand has concluded that seaward fringes of Avicennia pneumatophores (P) form an 'important ecological transitional environment' between seagrass (Z) and mangrove (M), supporting intermediate macrofaunal numbers and biodiversity (Alfaro, 2006). This study re-examined that hypothesis in subtropical Moreton Bay, Queensland, and investigated its dependence on the nature of the lower-shore habitat; i.e. whether seagrass or sandflat (S). Adjacent macrobenthic assemblages across 45 m deep Z:P:M and S:P:M interfaces were compared uni- and multivariately and via various assemblage metrics. Here, system compartment P was not intermediate. In Z:P:M interfaces it was essentially an extension of the lower-shore assemblage and supported peak biodiversity. In contrast, P in S:P:M interfaces was partly an extension of the upper-shore assemblage with unchanged biodiversity but minimum abundance. Several species spanned the whole interface zone, and assemblage structure and several metrics remained unchanged across it. These findings are discussed in relation to ecotones in general. Like other such zones the characteristics of pneumatophore-fringe ecotones are context dependent.